2017 U.S. National Championships Tournament Report - 1st Place

"You can't control me, you can't destroy me, and there is no prison in the universe that can hold me." - Darkseid

Welcome to my recap of the 2017 U.S. Nationals Tournament at Origins, where I went 13-0 on the day and took 1st place. I didn't take notes or pictures of the teams, so all of this comes from memory. Apologies for any errors that might be present throughout the recap.

A couple of months ago, some of the St. Louis players decided to start meeting on a somewhat regular basis to gear up for Nationals and Worlds. 5 of us had qualified for Nats - Matt H, Michaela K (Top 4 Worlds), Craig H (Top 16 Worlds), Craig R (Top 8 Nats, Top 32 Worlds), and myself. We started with what we knew would either be unaffected or got stronger with rotation - Mask Ring and Ultraman. With Mask Ring running the Action Tax Oracle, it would end up slowing down Ultraman and controlling the game from there. I made the suggestion of running Lantern Ring specifically for that match-up - if Mask Ring sets up Raven and Oracle, you just pivot to Lantern Ring. Miri Riam comes in to the team as well, and now Kryptonite would serve a second purpose if they couldn't be used with Ultraman. We found that with that pivot, the matchup became a lot better for Ultraman. I'll come back to this in a moment.

As we were meeting up, spoilers for Batman started to come out. After seeing Darkseid - Force of Entropy spoiled, along with the uncommon Parademon, we decided to try and put something together. The initial team was clunky at best. While it could win against the established teams (Mask Ring, Ultraman), it was difficult to maintain Darkseid, Parademon, and a sidekick all the way through to your next turn. The other issue was purchasing Darkseid - whatever 2-cost character we attempted to run, it just didn't have the synergy that Kryptonite did with Ultraman. (For reference, the opening play for Ultraman is to use Rip Hunter's Chalkboard's global, put a Kryptonite into the prep area on T1, and then roll double bolts to purchase an Ultraman on T2. We were attempting to go with the same opener for Darkseid as the gameplan revolved around getting Darkseid out early.) What I did learn was that it's a ton of fun to swarm your bag every turn, so I wasn't ready to abandon the concept. The next time we met up, I added Wong - Expert of Kamar Taj and Dwarf Wizard. This way, Wong would also swarm once Darkseid was present, so it wasn't a waste to purchase one. It also provided Fast damage, which could help protect Darkseid against Force Block Globals. While it wasn't enough, we did learn that Dwarf Wizard prevented Mask Ring from being aggressive with just Multiple Man and Lantern Ring. By just being on the team, it demanded Mask Ring had to purchase a Raven, giving a couple of extra turns to the Darkseid player. I still wasn't satisfied with what it was doing.

The next time I meet up with them is Sunday, June 11th - right before Origins. Ben C. from Iowa (Top 16 Nats) drove down to meet up with us and get some playtesting in as well. That morning, I'm thinking of different things and how I might have to settle with playing Mask Ring or Ultraman, despite having much more fun with Darkseid. And then it hits me - every turn I'm able to swarm all of the sidekicks in my bag, I have tons of energy to do pretty much whatever I want. When you're re-rolling 7 sidekicks, you have a good chance at going for a specific energy type. What if, instead of Parademon providing the consistent damage each turn all 3 pieces were out, I ran Lantern Ring? Darkseid is already a bolt character, and Lantern Ring (as mentioned above) works great with Miri Riam. Dwarf Wizard also fits right at home - a bolt character who gives me some control as well as protects my Darkseid from an opposing Dwarf Wizard. Chalkboard is still necessary for purchasing Darkseid on T2. Since I'm running When Fielded abilities on Miri and Dwiz, I'd like to be able to cycle them when I can - Clay Golem fits with that, and provides a Defensive buff to my team against Unstable Canister, Spectre, or anyone trying to run Overcrush. Since I'm heavily into bolts, S.T.A.R. Labs made sense as the Sidekick-maker of choice (compared to White Tiger or Ring from D&D). I no longer care about combat damage, making Blink - Transmutation work great (and also protect against Bane's taunt global). Upgrade - Fortification had continued to be my anti-Ultraman tech choice, as it basically read as them losing 2 life every time they used Kryptonite. That left one slot on the team. When I got to the playtesting session, Ben C. was already running a bolt ring team with Firefly - Ted Carson on it. After seeing the card, I said 'Why not?' and rolled with it.

Gone were the clunky games - Darkseid was serious this time. Once it got out in the field, you just Fabricated away Miris and Fireflys while purchasing more characters. Rolling 7 sidekicks, 3 non-sidekick dice from your bag and another 2-3 from your prep area was usually game over if Lantern Ring was available. Since Miri could bring in 2 bolt characters (herself plus a second one purchased with an and Firefly was damage on any of his faces (character when fielded, or bolts for Lantern Ring on his energy face). you had a lot of different combinations for coming up with the necessary damage. And it was still a ton of fun to roll all of those dice. After going 4-0 against Mask Ring and meeting Ultraman almost head-on, I finally felt like I had something worth running. The only changes I made were switching to the common S.T.A.R. Labs (as a secondary removal, mainly against Dwiz in a mirror match if necessary) and removing a Dwiz die to add a second S.T.A.R. Labs die.

Invidivual Breakdown of Cards:Miri Riam - Beacon in the Dark
Arguably the best 2-cost bolt character for Lantern Ring teams everywhere. Miri sets up our T2 purchase of Darkseid, but also helps later by pulling a second Miri into the field when Lantern Ring is out, effectively doubling all of the Lantern Ring damage that could be done in a given turn. She usually ends up being some of the bolts we're looking to roll for the win as well.

Dwarf Wizard - Paragon Zhentarim
Dwarf Wizard has been in the meta since Faerun Under Siege released. Its ability to shut down an opposing character on your opponent's field is great. It also protects Darkseid against an opposing Dwarf Wizard when necessary. It's a bolt character, so buying this in the early or mid-game doesn't hurt the team at all.

Darkseid - Force of Entropy
Hello dice ramp. If you haven't played around with this card, I encourage you to give it a try. As long as your sidekick survives to your next turn, you have an effect better than Professor X that requires no energy investment and your opponent can't also abuse. It's that good. The key factor is making sure you can guarantee a sidekick in your field and not having more than 3 non-sidekick dice going through your bag. If you have 4 or more, you can reach a point where you stop drawing sidekicks and ruin your swarm.

Due to this card being so essential, I decided to run 2 dice instead of just 1. In the event you miss on rolling a character face, but you have the energy to chalkboard a second one, you can do just that to try and field one again next turn instead of waiting for a full bag rotation to see Darkseid again.

Lantern Ring - Limited Only By Imagination
Our primary win condition once Darkseid's ramp is up and running. From there, it's just a matter of actually rolling the ring. There's 2 dice on Lantern Ring for the exact same reason as Darkseid - whiff the first time, buy a second one to increase your chances.

Clay Golem - Paragon Construct
Much like other cards on this team, Clay Golem pulls double duty. It provides a way to cycle our various When Fielded abilities very efficiently depending on the situation. While it's active, it provides +2D to our entire team, making our sidekicks have 3 defense. That makes them much harder to ping away by Unstable Canister.

Pro tip: If you're light on energy on a given turn and have no other crucial purchases, you can spend a single shield and prep a Fabricated Clay Golem along with the two characters you KO'd to purchase it. Great way to get some dice churn rolling again.

Firefly - Ted Carson
A cheap bolt character that softens an opponent up prior to finding lethal without sacrificing board state? Sign me up. Again, this character was just thrown on thanks to Ben C. running it on his team, but the amount of work this card does is crazy. By fielding and fabricating Firefly, you're cycling each turn and dealing ~3-5 damage to your opponent each time, giving you more flexibility. No side is a bad side on this team - Firefly is just guaranteed damage.

Rip Hunter's Chalkboard - WHEN AM I?
This card is only here for the global, but what a powerful global it is. On your first turn, you're looking for a bolt, a shield, and one other energy. With this roll, you can pay a shield and prep a Miri die. On your second turn, you're ideally looking to roll two bolts and purchase a Darkseid. Chalkboard allows you to be more reactive to your opponent, putting a Dwarf Wizard into prep when necessary as well as just lining up Lantern Ring or other bolt characters. If Darkseid is swarming all of your sidekicks, it allows a 4th non-sidekick die to be purchased and go through to your next turn without ruining swarm.

S.T.A.R. Labs - Advanced Research
Darkseid needs at least one sidekick to swarm with. What happens if you don't roll a sidekick? You don't swarm. Thus the need for a contingency plan. In addition, you can do this on your opponent's turn, giving you flexibility in assessing their threats and whether you absolutely need a ? to use for Blink or for this. In addition, I'm running the common for an additional form of removal (with Darkseid out, you can deal at least 4 damage to another target character) in the case it was needed. However, it never came up in any games where it was the right move to purchase it.

Upgrade - Fortification
Anti-Ultraman tech, plain and simple. Each time they go through a cycle with Kryptonite, they lose 2 life as the team typically doesn't run a Shield character. It made no impact on the day as it was irrelevant against the only Ultraman I saw, but it also never hurt me by having something my opponents could use against me.

Blink - Transmutation
The power of this card is ridiculously good. While it's mainly there for the global and to delay aggression while setting up Darkseid, the action side of it can be relevant in certain situations and should never be discounted either.

Teen Titans with a Lantern Ring as a back-up/finisher. Also has a ring tech in Long Live the Resistance. Ultimately, Patrick didn't tech against Darkseid (he said as much himself), and Darkseid came out swinging way too fast for his Titans to deal with it. Although Static could remove a sidekick on my turn, the swarm already happened, so I just had to re-field or set up to use S.T.A.R. Labs. I believe Patrick might have missed a roll to start getting Hawk out as soon as he could have, making it easier on my end.

Round 2 found myself against a Mask Ring build, but with some interesting tech choices, mainly the Carnage. He also was running Ring/Res, only with Villianous Pact instead. As in my testing against Mask Ring, Darkseid just goes faster and the control pieces that can do something just don't really impact the team at all. Ronin did get out in the field behind a Raven, forcing me to go for a higher ceiling, but Darkseid was up to the task and started swarming by Turn 5.

Alright, there's Kryptonite and Ultraman, okay I...wait, he's also running Darkseid? And Storm?! AND BATMAN?!?!?!? It became clear that while he had some different tech choices on his team for various situations (he would tell me afterwards that the Darkseid was purely against Mask Ring), this team was still an Ultraman team. However, it traded Superhero Registration Act or any other kind of bag churn for a slower control game by gaining 4 life each time. Early on, he got Ultraman and Storm out in the field, but I was able to land a Dwarf Wizard on his Ultraman. In a following turn, he rolled two Kryptonites and did a ton of damage to me - I believe he brought me down to 5 life. On the following turn, I rolled enough bolts to finish out the game. He could have used Storm to ping away my 3 sidekicks instead of damaging me, preventing swarm from triggering, but it would have been close either way.

Round 4 found me against Andy, who would go on to take 2nd place in Worlds the following day. He was running a very aggressive Guy Gardner/2-cost character team, with Batman and Dwarf Wizard as removal when needed. I remember he came out of the gates swinging, and I believe I took something like 13-14 damage very early on. From there, I was able to stabilize by putting Miris and Fireflys in the way of his Guy Gardners each turn. Because they kept rolling characters and kept providing me with ramp by rolling them each turn, I didn't need to worry about using Fabricate and was able to stave off lethal long enough to find my own with fielding Firefly/Lantern Ring.

At this point, there are two other 4-0 players besides myself. Scott was running a pure bolt ring team with Oni teched in against the mirror match. He got out to some early burn with Rocket Raccoon, but missed a crucial Dwarf Wizard roll to stop my Darkseid. From there, things just started falling apart. While he was able to use Unstable Canister and ping away my sidekicks, Clay Golem made it that much harder (occasionally forcing him to spend 6 bolts to clear either both sidekicks or my level 1 Darkseid). Finally, I was able to get my swarm to fire off and it was pretty much game a turn or two later. Scott did have about 3-4 turns of about the worst rolls you could get, so I do feel a little bad for him - they were absolutely brutal turn after turn after turn.

5-0

At this point, I'm second overall, ranked just below a classic Mask Ring team that also went undefeated in swiss. Scott E, Andy K, and Julio N also made the cut. After a lunch break, it was on to the Top 16.

Another Mask Ring team, this time with Elf Thief instead of Multiple Man. I didn't mention it against Andy, but Elf Thief virtually forced me to never save anything for my opponent's turn, as it was either use it or lose it. Regardless, in the first game Darkseid just came out of the gates too fast for him to stop it. In the second game, a Lyssa Drak came out fairly early on, but it was still more of the same. Without any kind of removal or force-block global, Darkseid just doesn't have many issues against Mask Ring.

Shawn and I had been talking on and off throughout the tournament, and he said he had just thrown this together the night before. Much like in my game against Andy, Guy Gardner was just cycling into my Miris and Fireflys, preventing him from pushing a whole lot. Because Guy no longer has PXG to keep a clear bag, they get clogged and don't come out as threatening. I remember two very specific things from our match - the first was that in game 1, I Rip'd a Miri T3 after fielding a Darkseid, and he used Bane to taunt my two sidekicks through. I still can't believe I forgot about that global when making that move, and it definitely slowed me by a couple of turns in that game - thankfully I was able to stabilize. In the second game, I missed my Darkseid roll, so I used Chalkboard to put a second Darkseid into the prep area for the following turn. I didn't get a sidekick out for a couple of turns, but once a 7/7 Darkseid and a sidekick were up (not to mention a second 7/7 Darkseid that would later roll into the field), it was just a matter of keeping blockers/Blink energy up to keep my opponent at bay. Great games all the way through.

At this point, I was very satisfied with everything that had happened up to this point. Win or lose, I was leaving happy. Top 4 ended up being a rematch against Andy. Darkseid felt like it had to make things interesting, taking a total of 6 rolls to finally come up as a character. It definitely extended our first game as a result. I remember Batman also came into play in both games this match, attempting to give me some trouble. However, because Darkseid and Firefly are Villains (and everything else isn't), he was unable to roll away my whole field. If he did reroll sidekicks, I was usually able to recover with S.T.A.R. Labs and Blink to continue fighting another turn. They were close games, but I was ultimately able to pull out two victories.

The finals! Full disclosure: I did not register that the Stuart I was facing off against was the one and the same that I've listened to on the Reserve Pool podcast countless times. Stuart was running a team that ran on the Darkseid engine too, but could be aggressive with Guy Gardner or go for a longer game of eventually fielding Grodd and pushing for the win that way. It provides a lot of flexibility, even more than my team. Game 1, Stuart won the roll and allowed me to go first. I found it interesting, but then disaster struck: for the first time in 12 games, I did not roll a shield and bolt to prep a Miri die. I was able to purchase a Miri, but nothing more. I remember feeling behind for a few turns when I missed my rolls, making a very awkward first few turns. I do remember I was able to name his Darkseid with my Dwarf Wizard. When my Darkseid finally came out into the field, he chose to do the same to mine. At that point, we had a very slow control game of trying to whittle away at each other. I was slowly bringing his life total down with Firefly and then fabricating it away. On my second to last turn, I had him down to 7. He had a Gorilla Grodd in the bag and a huge board. I decided to field a Clay Golem (to help deal with overcrush damage) and chalkboarded a Blink. Because Darkseid was shut down on my field, I didn't have the energy I needed, so Lantern Ring had never been purchased in that game. I left myself with no energy for him to steal with his Elf Thief, but also nothing for Blink's global against him. On Stuart's turn, he rolled about as much as he could ask for - Gorilla Grodd on a 6/6 face and even more characters. After thinking about it, he decided to push the team. This resulted in something like a 14 attack Guy, a 12 attack Guy, a 6 attack Grodd, a 6 attack Darkseid, and a whole bunch of sidekicks, Elf Thieves, etc, all with Overcrush. Because Clay Golem buffed my field by 2D, I was able to survive the attack, taking 19 damage, putting me to 1 life, and losing almost my entire field (Firefly and Clay Golem double-blocked the 12 attack Guy, so Stuart rightly chose to KO just the Clay Golem since there was no overcrush damage happening). I want to say the full attack was something around 60-70 points of damage. On my next turn, after rolling and re-rolling, I was able to field 9 attackers to Stuart's 4 blockers and roll Blink on its action face, getting me just over 9 damage pushed for the win in game 1. At this point, we were past the halfway point on time, and Stuart needed to push for a win and fast. He again let me go first, but I was able to chalkboard Miri on T1 and purchase Darkseid on T2. Darkseid came out into the field and Stuart missed his Dwarf Wizard roll. He had been playing aggressively this game (rightly so), so no Darkseid had been acquired by him at any point. There were also a few turns where he would roll 5-6 energy, keeping a Grodd from being purchased as well. Meanwhile, I was able to swarm for a couple of turns and play defensively, ultimately rolling Lantern Ring in one turn to follow it up with enough bolts and a Firefly fielding to deal more than enough damage, even through his Ronin, on Turn 2 or 3. They were a great couple of games, and easily the most math I've ever had to do in a game of Dice Masters.

13-0

And there you have it! Somehow, the team I decided I had the most fun playing had gotten me all the way to being the 2017 U.S. National Champion. As I had won all of the prizes I came to compete for, and was also exhausted from playing 13 grueling games in a 10 hour span, I ultimately decided to sit out of Worlds and let someone else compete and win the prizes they were seeking. I look forward to defending the belt at next year's National Championships!

A few shoutouts that are definitely necessary:

Michaela K, Matt H, Craig R, and Craig H - You guys continue to be great players and great competitors. I can definitely say that this would not have happened if we didn't playtest ahead of time, so thank you.

The St. Louis Dicemasters Community (Liz, Heath, Craig T, etc) - Thank you guys for also making St. Louis a great Dice Masters community. I can't say enough how awesome it is that we're able to get 8 person Rainbow Drafts to fire on a regular basis, let alone fun team-building events. You guys are all awesome.

Ben C - You're 100% the reason for Firefly - Ted Carson being on this team, so thank you for that along with always being such a great player. I look forward to the next match we play against each other.

Jin - Thanks for taking the time to get all of the Nationals lists written up and posted. If you didn't post them, I definitely would not have been able to make this write-up, so I really appreciate all of the work you did.

The Dice Masters Community - Seriously, I know we're always saying this, but this is one of the best gaming communities out there. Everyone is so positive, helpful, and there to play to have a good time. Every opponent I faced was excellent throughout the day, and interacting with every other player at the event was great. Thank you for making this game even more amazing then just the rules and the cards.

WizKids/Chris/Judging Staff - This event was leaps and bounds better than last year, despite the minor technical issue with WIN. Thank you for keeping everything running smoothly and generally doing a great job. Your ability to maintain a positive demeanor over 4-5 days of judging and running events is great and always appreciated.

Well, that should wrap it up. If you have questions about anything above, did I ever consider X card or how I handled Y situation, or anything else, feel free to post below and I'll do my best to answer them! Thanks for reading my recap of the 2017 U.S. Nationals.